WARNER ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE EXHIBIT NO. 6 Processing of EXCESS ENGINES * Excess engines screened for Reclaimed for parts and Other Government agencies * Residue transferred to dis- Mr. IKARD. You are now at this phase. Major BROSE. Yes, sir. Our first job was to determine if any of these engines could be used in any other aircraft where there might be a shortage, particularly the new production aircraft. We got together with the experts on it, particularly the people in the Air Research and Development Command and the people at AMC, and determined that none of the 15,000 engines could be used for future-type aircraft. We determined what type of parts and accessories we could reclaim. Some of them you use for future overhaul, either of the remaining aircraft of that type and model or of the future aircraft. The C-46 is still in service and still being overhauled, and the parts for those will be in demand. There is a high degree of interchangeability of the engines, such as the R-4360 and the early R-2300's. There is an interchangeability there. We also went to all other Government agencies that were interested, the Navy, the Department of the Interior, the Civil Aeronautics Authority, and they indicated an interest in 5,392 of these engines. Then anything that was left, either as an engine or the residue after reclaiming the parts, goes to the disposal yard. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Do you have any figures on what you will realize from parts and accessories? Major BROSE. I do not have the figures. Mr. COTTER. On the B-29, how many will you use, those 4,000 that you have, or will they be thrown away? Major BROSE. The majority were reclaimed for parts at Oklahoma City. Mr. COTTER. You do not have the figures with you? Major BROSE. No; I do not, but I can get them. The figures on what will be realized from parts and accessories are not readily available. This matter has been discussed with Mr. Morris (subcommittee staff member) who agreed that in view of the time and expense that would be involved in obtaining such figures there would be no need to obtain them at this time. (Excerpt from letter of Jan. 29, 1954, from Brig. Gen. Joe W. Kelly, USAF, Director, Legislative Liaison, Department of the Air Force, to Hon. R. Walter Riehlman, chairman, Military Operations Subcommittee.) Major BROSE. Today we are in the various stages of processing the engines. Some of them are actually in disposal yards and some of them are being transferred. In going through this picture we feel that there is room for improvement in our procedure, that we can get a greater return to the Government by changing some of the basic procedures for processing the engines. Here we have a very high cost item which has many commercial applications. We are finalizing procedures at AMC. Here is how we plan to do that. Our first step will be to see if an engine can be used in other aircraft, the same as on this preceding program. We will survey all possibilities on an engine and will go to the other Government agencies and ask them if they want it, either as a complete engine or for parts. We are going to try to determine the commercial value of the engines, either from like engines on the commercial market, or the best estimate. We will get the monetary value there again. Then we will compare all of these steps and see which one will give the greatest returns to the Government, because the possibility exists that we might be, under the present procedures, reclaiming an engine under our procedure for parts when at the same time the commercial value might be greater and we could get more money back to the Government by selling it as an engine rather than taking the parts out of it. Mr. RIEHLMAN. I was wondering whether or not there had been a determination made from surveying the commercial lines to find out whether there is an interest. Do you know whether there is an interest in these engines on the part of private industry? Major BROSE. Yes, there is. On this particular program we had a call from Pan-American and they were interested in several different types of engines. Mr. RIEHLMAN. The question would seem to be whether there is some value to reclaiming the parts for the future use of the engine or whether the engine is obsolete at the present time. Colonel PACKARD. Before we put through an engine for reclaim, we run off a list of the parts we need, and list the value of the parts, and determine whether or not those parts are available from production sources. In many cases reclamation is the only source from which we can get these parts because the tooling may have been destroyed. If the parts are available and if the cost of reclamation equals the cost or is greater, there is no advantage. We do try to make a fine determination as to criticality in the cost of the end result. Mr. RIEHLMAN. How far have you gone on this proposal? Major BROSE. We have written it up in our office and expect to get together with the Navy on that. We plan to do that early next week. The proposal in question has been received at this headquarters for consideration, and preliminary discussions with the Office, Secretary of Defense and the Navy have been held. The proposal is being submitted to the Office, Secretary of Defense for formal consideration.-(Excerpt from letter of January 29, 1954, from Brig. Gen. Joe W. Kelly, USAF, Director, Legislative Liaison, Department of the Air Force, to Hon. R. Walter Riehlman, chairman, Military Operations Subcommittee.) Colonel PACKARD. We feel that this picture we have should be an across-the-board picture and apply to the Navy as well as ourselves, so that they can get the advantage of our engines, too. Major BROSE. That completes the presentation, sir. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Thank you. Colonel PACKARD. At this point, Mr. Cotton from Warner Robins has a presentation, or we can discuss any questions you have, Mr. Ikard. Mr. IKARD. We can do that later. Mr. RIEHLMAN. Perhaps we should take a brief recess at this point. (Whereupon, at 3: 44 p. m., the hearing was recessed for 15 minutes.) Mr. IKARD. Proceed, please. STATEMENT OF A. H. COTTON, ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY AND SERVICES, WARNER ROBINS AIR MATERIEL AREA, WARNER ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, GA. Mr. COTTON. So far in the process today you have seen and heard of the Air Material Command logistics concept from the Air Materiel Command level to the depot. You have heard discussed the Air Force program and policy with regard to the implementation of certain programs within the Air Force logistics system. I will discuss with you the implementation of some of these programs and policy guidelines that come down to the Air Force depots from the Headquarters, Air Force, and the Headquarters, Air Materiel Command. Our mission at the depot is to provide logistical support for the United States Air Force with respect to supply and services, maintenance engineering, and procurement; organize, conduct, and supervise unit and individual military training in all fields of AMC activity; perform area activities functions as outlined in appropriate directives; exercise command jurisdiction over subordinate activities as authorized and directed; and perform other specific and special mission assignments as properly authorized and directed by Headquarters, AMC. Now, with respect to the magnitude of the installation here at Warner Robins, the question was raised here today about the actual total control. The funds responsibility for fiscal year 1953 are broken down into materiel procurement responsibility at Warner Robins which comes to $44 million. Others amounts to $212,552. To further explain others in single service procurement, as you know, the Ordnance Department is responsible for buying vehicles. Purchase documents go to the Department of the Army for the actual buying. The maintenance and operating cost is $63,183. Again, for our total fund responsibility, the general figure is $309,735,000. The personnel assigned to the base consists of 14,119 civilians, composed of 3,462 graded employees and the rest employed locally. The military personnel consists of 154 officers and 817 airmen, for a total of 971. Now, with respect to the size of this base, it consists of 6,428 acres. There are 3 major runways, 1 of them being 6,000 feet long and 2 of them 7,000 feet long. There are 1,800,000 square feet of permanent buildings and 4,700,000 square feet of temporary buildings. There are 1,400 takeoffs and landings per month average. The average vehicle miles per month amount to 250,000. The gross warehouse space available is 2,173,675 square feet. Mr. RIEHLMAN. That does not take into consideration what is under construction at the present time? Mr. COTTON. No, sir. Mr. IKARD. What is under construction? Mr. COTTON. 1,152,000 square feet. Now, to go into the mission to the supply area proper, the mission is broken down into three major categories. First is the prime class responsibilities; secondly is the zonal class responsibilities; and thirdly is the base support responsibilities. In the prime class our mission is to maintain control of property classes assigned by accomplishing the computation of material requirements for budget and procurement purposes; provisioning and initiation of procurement; distribution and redistribution of property in support of Air Force worldwide program; receive, store, issue, and account for these items for the Eastern Zone, the Caribbean, the Northeastern Command, and the European Theater requirements. The prime classes and numbers of items assigned in each consist of 155,333 line items. WARNER ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE EXHIBIT No. 7 Prime supply classes and number of items assigned in each are: In These items represent 21.8 percent of the total Air Force active items. addition we are responsible for determination of initiation of procurement actions. I gather from earlier discussion that you are familiar with what line items are and these are procurements in those property class assignments, notably aircraft parts, propellers, bombing equipment, gunnery equipment, fire-control systems, airborne armament radar equipment, shop machinery, timekeeping and navigational instruments, vehicle engines and parts and vehicle spare parts themselves. Mr. BALWAN. Our report indicates that Warner Robins has 275,000 prime items. Mr. COTTON. Prime items, in addition to the figures here. There are 111,000 Department of Army items which are on the following page of my presentation. This figure of 155,000 items represents 21.8 percent of the total Air Force active items. This is Air Force items alone, those that are within the Air Force cataloging system. In addition to this 155,000, there are 111,204 Army purchase items which are under the control of this depot. These are the items which are required in support of the end items of equipment which the Air Force has. For instance, automotive parts for a future purpose vehicle which is solely stocked by Ordnance. We have the end item under our control and consequently we must support the density of vehicles which are in our possession. The spares are bought for the Air Force by the Army since they are the single service procuring agency. We must exercise the stock control point of distribution and redistribution of Air Force equity which is maintained for us. In that category of items which is from another procuring service there are 111,000 of those items. Colonel PACKARD. Those are the items that I covered that the Army stores. They buy it and store it and issue it, but we are given the money to buy our portion of it. We determine how much money we need and how much we will buy and tell the Army what we want to buy and they buy it and put it in their depots. In the past they did this in their own depots. That was the point where we decided to let services cross service. They store and issue this property, but on our direction. They have this responsibility which we might say is a paper work responsibility, but the physical shipment and storage and buying is done by the Army for us. They may have in one bin 100 items, but 50 of those belong to us. We told them to buy 50 and tell them to ship them to us when we ask for them. We know what our Army assets are. Let us say that 25 of those are excess to our needs. That is a paper computation, and at that point we tell the Army to dispose of them. Mr. BALWAN. The number of the items reviewed for Spring-clean is 152,000, but actually you reviewed nearly all of the items you have on the base. Mr. COTTON. I will explain that later. In our zonal class responsibilities, our mission is to receive, store, issue and maintain accountable records for zonal supply classes to support Air Force, Air National Guard, CAP, Army installations and ORC activities located in the Eastern Zone, the Caribbean, Northeastern Command, and European theaters. The supply classes and the number of items are as listed here, the total items being 88,350. |